It is one thing for hosts of shows from rival cities to share air time on their respective stations and trade verbal jabs for a few minutes. It is another beast entirely for a player or coach to appear as a regular guest on a rival’s program, let alone in the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry.

Valentine’s first appearance in this “Enemy Lines” segment was Wednesday. And he had this to say about the contrast between the baseball culture of Boston and that of New York or Japan:

“It is different because it is different.”

Ooohh, deep.

What else say you, Master V? How about the situation with closer Andrew Bailey, who is out until the All-Star Break or until August or for the entire year, depending on whose reports you believe?

“It is a little bit of a surprise… [t]he one thing that we really never got to do is have guys pitch out of the bullpen how they might be doing it during the regular season. You like to line that stuff up and get guys kind of passing the baton. Andrew came as a little bit of a surprise. We kept thinking he was going to be able to pitch the next time out.”

So the shampoo bottle incident wasn’t a tip? And now you’re going to have the Swiss army knife known as Alfredo Aceves be your closer exclusively? The general sentiment about Aceves is that he’s too valuable to be restricted to one role. Why not have Mark Melancon take that role, or better yet, move Daniel Bard out of the starting rotation and into the ninth-inning spot where he was anticipated to be when Jonathan Papelbon left? And given Aaron Cook’s amazing spring training, why not give him the fifth starter role?

The difference between Matt Carpenter the leadoff man and Carpenter in any other spot in the order has been huge this season. As they enter the stretch run, St. Louis should keep batting him leadoff. Read More